Written by:
2011/02/28 09:32 AM 

Monetising your blog can be so difficult at times. There has been a lot written about it. How to make money on your blog, how to monetise your blog, how and what to advertise etc.

The most widely used form of monetisation is online advertising. It would seem so easy to have a few ads displayed on ones blog, and then collect the passive income.

Online Advertising is a lot more difficult

In reality it is rather more difficult than some make out to be. It’s not just as simple as dropping an ad graphic onto your blog. You have to get the advertisers interested first.

Yes, one can always use adsense, but in my experience adsense is not profitable unless you have large amounts of traffic.

The best is to get individual advertisers signed up. Agree on a price and go for it.

But that’s where the difficulty comes in. Getting private online advertising is not as easy as it sounds. Advertisers want a return on their investment. They want to see results. Whatever that may be.

Advertisers want lots of exposure, they want click throughs. They want sales.

You probably will not get significant advertising if you don’t have large amounts of traffic.

So then, how can you land a great advertising deal?

Create a sponsored competition

You have to start thinking out of the box. This is what great marketers do, and this is what draws advertisers to you.

Create a competition that is sponsored by and involves the advertisers.  The guys over at Blogengage have done this quite brilliantly. They have created a guest blogging contest. The prize is $500 USD and a grand prize of $1000USD

Here is how it works. You have to write a blog post that includes a link to their site, as well as proper anchor text links to their sponsors.

What does this do?

1. It gets exposure to their blog. Who does not want to enter a competition and win money?
2. It creates back links to their blog. By having a rule in the competition to link back to the original competition blog post they are creating.
3. They are creating advertising for their own blog. By having other bloggers write about their competition is an indirect form  of advertising.
4. They are creating back links for their advertising sponsors. By having another rule to have linked anchor text to their sponsors, they have created multiple back links to their sponsors web sites.
5. They have created a distributed advertising network for their sponsors. By having to display and or write about the competition sponsors, they have created more advertising for their sponsors. Their sponsors have been represented on all the blogs that take part. All the readers of those blogs get to see the adverts and are exposed to the advertisers. This is more exposure than the original blog can ever offer. If the competition goes right, this becomes an exponentially large advertising campaign.
6. Indirect advertising through social networks. Another rule of the competition is to market the competition, and the blog post through social networks. On sites like Twitter and Facebook. This becomes an indirect form of advertising for both the original competition blog and their advertisers.
7. They have created traffic to their site. People will come and read the rules of the competition. People will click the links to their blog in those posts that have been written about the competition. More traffic from outside sources.
8. They create guest blogging opportunities. By having bloggers also guest post on their blog, they have created a fantastic guest posting opportunity. Here we have the potential of creating great new content, keeping the blog fresh and once again the possibility of more advertising and more traffic.

Conclusion

Whether the guys at Blogengage did this intentionally or not, I see it as a great opportunity to bring return on investment (ROI) for their advertisers.

I was invited by Brian to enter the competition. I did not go looking for it, but I have written about it anyway. This post just proves what I am trying to say.

I think I have missed the deadline for the completion. It closes by end of March, but to enter you have to have written a post by end of February. But nonetheless, because it is such a great idea, I thought I would write about it anyway.

I will also give recognition to their sponsors below. Just to round of this whole post to show you how effective this form of advertising is.

Hey I am advertising Blogengage’s sponsors, for free. What better form of advertising is there?

So now its up to you. Go and get those advertisers on board. Develop a sponsored competition. Have people write about it. Rinse and repeat.

Remember you can win a weeks worth of free ad space just for commenting. The best comments during the week will get a weeks free advertising space. Check out: Win free advertising for your blog

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Tags: Advertising , Marketing , Contests , Writing

Categories: Marketing

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